Hopes and Dreams
by FeveredNights
Summary: Jennifer has fallen in love with the Duchess. A horrible sickening love that will never be returned. Her body runs off of imagination and heart aches with desire. Oh how did it come to this? Jennifer is such a pitiful girl.


I sit in a corner, a very small corner indeed. The small flicker of dim candlelight arises in the corner opposite mine. It's cold and lonely. My emotions are dark, to match this room. A musty aroma invades my senses, my hands are clammy and cold. Dust flutters form the ceiling above every now and then. This sure is an old place.

A small whistle of wind can be heard, interrupting the lonely silence and casting it away. But I do wish it would come back. The wind sighs through the trees and rustles the dry leaves that lay in the overgrown lawn. Now I can feel the nights air numbing my body. Godforsaken wind….

I'm sitting here alone to think, but its hard to keep your mind on one subject, when your somebody like me. Who hears every noise, my eyes dart around the room looking for the culprit who has made that recent creaking noise. That eerie moan that the floorboards make. But deep in my mind I know its just the house. It is very, very old, after all.

Back to other matters…something has been pressing me. Its not something that I would normally think about and if I were to tell anybody that I was indeed thinking about it they would simply believe I were trying to make a joke. But I'm not. This is most serious. It bothers me and I'm scared. I find myself nervously biting my lower lip and tugging idly at the strands of blond hair that have fallen stray from my bun.

My mind then drifts off to depths of my imagination and a face appears. The face of a girl, such an angelic face she possesses. With those devious eyes and that sad, sad smile that tugs at her lips. It makes my stomach flip. Freckles caress her cheeks and bright red hair compliments them. Such a cruel, cruel girl. I don't understand how I have fallen for her. But I have indeed. Oh how the others would taunt me if this was ever to be found out. Margaret would most likely kill me. Nobody would care if she did anyway. I shuddered at the thought.

It was then in that state of mind that I hear the knocking of boots against the wooden floor board. I bite my lip hard, maybe a little too hard, though I didn't notice at the time. I was too busy praying that the girl those boots belonged to wouldn't enter the small room in which I was hiding….but they did…this isn't the kind of place where hopes and dreams come true.

The doorknob creaks as it turns and the poor old door fly's open revealing the duchess. She's beautiful. She crosses the room slyly making her way over to me, with that smirk. It haunts my dreams.

"Jen-I-feh." She says tauntingly sending chills running up my arms and down my spine. "You have something on your face." She kneels down and runs her long, cold, pale….perfect fingers across my chin, wiping away the small trail of blood that had been caused by my own paranoid antics.

"W-what do y-y-you want D-Diana?" I ask stuttering…I'm ashamed of myself. Of my fear.

She runs her hands down my arms, that wicked smile growing. I love it. Her hands now in mine…she begins to giggle maniacally as she digs her nails into the soft flesh on the palms of mine. I flinch and let out a small squeal. I feel the nails break through the surface of the skin drawing blood. She then leans into me her mouth inches away from my ear, blond hair intertwining with fire. She smells of night, of winter, of the frigid air and a soft scent of something else, something endearing the kind of smell that makes you shiver with delight. So I do. And then it happens her lips graze across my ear and under heated breath she whispers "I would like a favor."

I couldn't move. A favor?

She then withdrew herself and my body aches to have her close again. It was like she knew every solution to getting her way whether it be pain, fright or seduction. The strong willed princess was a master of all three.

"What favor?" I manage to whisper my lips barely moving.

Her face then grows dark, eyes hollow, body stiff. "I need to rid of Hoffman, he is quite the nuisance and I don't enjoy the way he handles things around here." She mutters flatly.

"What can I do?" I don't want to say no. Because the outcome would be tragic and I would probably end up bloody somehow. My will wasn't strong enough to deny her.

Unexpectedly she takes her hand in mine and pulls my up onto my feet. The floorboard creaks as we begin to walk. Shadows dance on the paint chipped walls and a sadness that surrounds this place like a curse overtakes my heart.

Diana leads me into the bedroom and over to her little mattress. Without a word she reaches under the dirty pillowcase and withdraws a knife. My mind went blank.

She holds out the handle for me to grasp. My body shakes and my head becomes dizzy. I don't know how I gathered up the courage. But I didn't wish for my hands to be soiled by another's death. Even though my desire to please the Duchess was very great. The thought of murder ruled over everything.

I leave quickly stumbling as I take steps. She doesn't follow me. I wish that she could understand why I would deny such a wretched "favor". Even if he is a little weird did the man really deserve to die for it?

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That night I was awakened from a dark sleep as something…someone kicks my mattress sending my tumbling out. Harshly landing on the floor and smacking my head off of the old boards that hold this orphanage together. I groan and look up to see Diana standing over me. She looks evil in the moonlight…well more than normal. Her stance is bent so she can look at me. She grinds her teeth and lets out a low growl before she kicks me. Hard. I clutch at my stomach gasping for air. It was then that she kneels down and grabs a fistful of my hair turning my head so I'm looking into her eyes. She spits in my face and throws me down again. "Your nothing but filth and I hate you Jennifeh. I should have known that you don't have the guts to do away with that old man."

She turns away from me and my heart aches. Oh how it yearns for a gentle touch from her cold hands. I wipe he saliva away and stand, my back against the wall.

Nobody will ever get her love. It's a lost hope. A lost cause. After all this is the kind of place where hopes and dreams don't come true.


End file.
